Methods and devices for modifying a runtime environment of imaging applications on a medical device

#The present application hereby claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to European patent application number EP 18171239.9 filed May 8, 2018, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

#Embodiments of the present invention generally refer to an improvement of a runtime environment for a medical application on a medical device, in particular an imaging device.

#Modern medical application environments are complex and use a variety of different devices, from different manufacturers, in a heterogeneous landscape and infrastructure with heterogeneous functions and applications and often in a non-standardized manner. This leads to challenges when technical improvements need to be implemented with respect to the information technological infrastructure. Each system has to be considered separately and improvements with respect to the runtime environment are to be implemented dedicatedly for each device or system.

#FIG. 1 shows an overview figure for an improvement node and respective message exchange for improvement computations for different devices.

#FIG. 2 is another example of an implementation of the improvement node in a network.

#FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an improvement method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

#The drawings are to be regarded as being schematic representations and elements illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily shown to scale. Rather, the various elements are represented such that their function and general purpose become apparent to a person skilled in the art. Any connection or coupling between functional blocks, devices, components, or other physical or functional units shown in the drawings or described herein may also be implemented by an indirect connection or coupling. A coupling between components may also be established over a wireless connection. Functional blocks may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof.

#Various example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which only some example embodiments are shown. Specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are merely representative for purposes of describing example embodiments. Example embodiments, however, may be embodied in various different forms, and should not be construed as being limited to only the illustrated embodiments. Rather, the illustrated embodiments are provided as examples so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concepts of this disclosure to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, known processes, elements, and techniques, may not be described with respect to some example embodiments. Unless otherwise noted, like reference characters denote like elements throughout the attached drawings and written description, and thus descriptions will not be repeated. The present invention, however, may be embodied in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to only the example embodiments set forth herein.

#It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers, and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers, and/or sections, should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments of the present invention. As used herein, the term “and/or,” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. The phrase “at least one of” has the same meaning as “and/or”.